Heartbreak and Misunderstandings
by katdemon1895
Summary: Tenten, a strong, hardworking kunoichi, wants nothing more than to protect her village and help her team be happy. But can she do that at the cost of her own happiness? now with companion fic- misunderstandings and heartbreak
1. Chapter 1

I'm feeling vaguely depressed and this is what came of it. I do not own Naruto- if I did then Sasuke would be getting the whooping of his life, Itachi wouldn't have died. and Tenten would have a larger role because she and Hinata are my favorite kunoichi

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Chapter one

I first developed a crush on him after I saw him take down every boy in our academy class during taijutsu. The way he fought was so elegant and the way he took down every opponent so quickly was just so wonderful that I couldn't help but be enchanted. I was seven years old.

I realized I was in love with him the first time he nearly died. When I found out he left, I almost went insane. He hadn't even thought about letting me help. I was his training partner. I had fought beside him for more than a year. I should have been there but I wasn't all because of his stupid, stupid pride! He just rushed off on that mission to get that thrice cursed traitor and returned with a hole the size of a fist in his chest. I wanted to yell and scream at him for leaving me behind. I wanted to hit him over the head and cry and make him promise that he'd never leave me behind like that again because we were partners darn it! We were teammates! But as soon as I saw him, I was so happy all I could do was try to hold back my tears and thank kami that he was back, that he was back with me and that he was going to be okay and that from now on I could make sure he'd never go on another mission without me to guard his back. When he came back it felt as if I regained a part of me that went missing. I was thirteen.

Then he broke my heart. I was nineteen

Perhaps it was in part my own fault. Maybe if I had been a little less covert in my feelings, or if I had done something different, maybe he could have looked at me as something other than the sane teammate. We trained together at any given opportunity. We were around each other more than we were around anyone else in the village except his family. He was my best friend and I thought I was his. I thought I knew him. I thought I knew him better than anyone.

We were supposed to have dinner together, with Gai of course, sort of celebrating my status as one of Konoha's newest jounin. Gai had run off when he spotted Kakashi and Lee was cheering our sensei on in the latest inane challenge while Naruto cheered on his own sensei. We were early getting there so I took the time to look around at the other people at the bar.

Then I saw him at the bar sitting next to _her_, Haruno Sakura. She was giggling in his presence and he was smiling, really _smiling_! He leaned over and whispered something in her ear. A bright blush appeared on her cheeks and they kissed. I felt as if I had been kicked in the chest and for a second I couldn't breathe. I felt my throat close and my eyes burn as I saw them together.

For a moment my mind resisted what I saw. It couldn't be, it just couldn't! Neji couldn't be doing that with her, he wasn't letting her get close to him like that. She wasn't making him smile. It couldn't be true!

But I forced myself to look again and to look closer. He seemed, not softer, but less guarded. He really was smiling and their heads were close together. I could just make out the sound of her soft giggles and she said something to him, though I couldn't hear what it was.

Gai and Lee were still involved in the challenge so I didn't have to make any excuses to anyone. I rushed to the bathroom, locking it behind me. I tried to breathe deeply but the horrific smell made that all but impossible.

I wanted to say that I didn't understand. I wanted to scream and yell and cry until I didn't have any more tears left, until there wasn't anything of me left. I wanted to hit him and kiss him and just beg him to give me a chance, to at least tell my why he chose her instead of me. I wanted to challenge her, tear every strand of her pretty pink hair out of her skull. I wanted to smash my fist into that stupid face, break her nose, use her forehead for target practice, completely humiliate her, prove that she wasn't worthy of him.

But a shinobi and especially a kunoichi, must always be in control of her feelings and besides, even with my anger clouding my mind, I do understand why he likes her. After all, she's beautiful and strong and graceful and kind. She belongs to a clan that is well thought of in many villages. She's respected throughout the Fire country and feared in many countries beyond. She's considered the next Tsunade. Clients beg to have her assigned in a team they hire, offering an arm, a leg, their fortunes, their first born, in return for the honor of saying that they have the Haruno Sakura working for them. And now I know that she has his heart. She's everything I wish I could have been and though right now I wish I could hate her more than anything else in the world right now, I can't. I just can't hate her. He loves her. She makes him happy and he deserves to be happy and I want him to be happy more than anything, even more than wanting to be the one that makes him happy. So, there's nothing I can do except get ready to train tomorrow and pray that I do not break when he and Sakura go public with their relationship.

I left the bar, my shoulders back, my held high, my eyes dry and my heart in pieces. No one came after me.

;_;

And there you have it, please be forgiving of any major mistakes and leave a review if you like and tell me what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

While working on _Don't Fear the Reaper_ I fell into a rather depressed mood and the previous chapter was the result. This chapter is a continuation. I don't own Naruto, if I did then Tenten and Hinata would have bigger roles, Sakura wouldn't have been so useless in the beginning and Naruto wouldn't have so many techniques that shorten his lifespan (seriously, what's up with that? It's like everything he's learned is designed to help kill him)

* * *

Planning

Even after seeing what I had seen last night, I hadn't wanted to believe that things would really change. Intellectually I knew they would. After all, for him to kiss her in public like that meant there was a level of comfort for him that could only have come from a longstanding relationship. I hadn't wanted to believe that he would change _this _much. I thought that I was still his best friend, that he still wanted to spend time with me.

I had waited for him. It was the day after The Incident, as I believe I will always think of it, and while I hurt more than I ever had in my life, I didn't think that things would change enough that he would do something as drastic as skipping training. After all, Neji was to training as Naruto was to ramen. And we always trained together, even on missions we found time to train together.

But when I arrived at our usual training site, he wasn't there. I figured that was okay, sometimes I did beat him to the training grounds after all, so I started my warm ups. He wasn't there by the time I was finished warming up so I summoned a shadow clone of myself. Naruto had eventually taught all of us who had the chakra to pull it off and I found this technique particularly useful, and started going through some exercises with my close range weapons- swords and staffs and the like. When Neji came by I would run out of chakra more quickly than usual but he would just have to deal with that, it was his own fault for being late and making me rely on my clone to train with.

The sun climbed higher and higher into the sky and I continued to train. I set up the moving targets and I trained by myself. I didn't stop, I couldn't stop because if I stopped then I would have to remember what time it was. I would have to pay attention to where the sun was in the sky, pay attention to the fact that for the first time since I met him, Neji didn't come to our training session.

Lee came by, talking of his goals and congratulations about my promotion and other things. I let his enthusiasm wash over me, distract me from Neji's absence. We trained together and I pushed myself harder as I fought against him, trying to lose myself in battle.

But Lee had other duties to attend to so he left after a little while, limping slightly and there would be a new scar on his cheek if he didn't get it healed by a medic nin, and I continued to train on my own. I worked hard until the sky became dark and I realized that the stars were out. I couldn't make any more excuses, Neji had never come to training.

I picked up my weapons and stretched out, keeping a tight hold on my emotions. A plan began to take a more solid form as I walked back to my apartment, passing the closed shops and ignoring the chilling breeze, focusing inward on what I needed to do. If my control wavered and a few tears began to fall as I walked, well, no one was around to notice so what did it matter anymore?

* * *

Yeah, that's that for this chapter, I'm keeping the chapters for this story deliberately short, sorry about that and I don't have a beta so sorry about the mistakes, I tried to catch all of them but I'm not sure if I managed it

And now a question- who is the most romantic fictional character you can think of?


	3. Chapter 3

Once again depression hits and at the moment not even chocolate ice cream can fix it and I just want to hide under the covers and cry until the world goes away. But since that's not going to happen my poor, favorite kunoichi suffers. I don't own Naruto. Over 100 of you have read this, would you please tell me what you think?

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Chapter 3: Beginning

The next day Neji showed up for training and we started to spar without a word. I wanted to talk to him though, to ask him why he missed training. I wanted to ask why he picked her, what was it that she did to catch his attention when I had tried for so long to get him to look at me, to see me, but I didn't dare. If I started to talk then I might not stop.

Left. Right. Dodge! Try to bash in his kneecap, block a blow aimed for my head with the hilt of my weapon. Jump. Kick. Roll. Kunai. Summon a sword. Dodge a hit aimed for my shoulder and counter with a strike towards an artery.

We battled for what felt like hours and thoughts of what I wanted to say swirled around my head.

Finally I snapped.

How dare he? How dare he miss training and not even apologize? How dare he act like nothing's wrong? How dare he not even have the courage to tell me to my face that he was in a relationship with _her_? How dare he never even give me a second glance? How dare he act like everything's going to be fine? How dare he, how dare he, how dare he, how dare he,

"TENTEN!" he shouted, breaking through the haze of rage that had enveloped me. I paused, and realized that he had actually gotten me in a submission hold, though I had a kunai ready to strike at a particularly delicate area of his body. I stared at him for a moment and he let me go and stood back.

"You should not let your emotions control you," he said, the scorn in his voice hitting me like one of Lee's punches.

"Sorry," I muttered and made my decision. I looked up at the sky frowned and then cast out my chakra strings to each of my weapons, the chakra seeking for the special seals I had specially carved in each of my weapons. In moments most of them came rushing towards me and I began the process of searching out the rest.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, sounding curious.

"Temari's in town. I'm going to meet with her, she promised to teach me a particular wind jutsu as thanks for helping her with something last month." I replied. I began the arduous task of putting away my weapons, sealing a few and putting the rest away into their appropriate pockets.

I finished tidying up and turned back to Neji, plastering my best fake happy expression on my face,

"I probably won't be here to train with you for awhile," I told him, "I want to get this jutsu mastered so I can show it to you next time we spar."

Before he could say anything I left in a whirl of leaves and kept moving until I found myself on top of the Hokage Mountain.

Each team I had ever served with since my first day as a genin had at least one Hyuuga in it and I had learned a few things. For one, the best way to lie to a Hyuuga is to have just enough truth in the mix. Temari was in town, she would be here for two weeks. But the Suna kunoichi would spend the first day with the Hokage and the next two days with Shikamaru and then the next day recuperating from whatever it is that they do together. The fifth day she and I would meet and she would begin teaching me that jutsu.

All I had to do now was avoid Neji for the next week.

Piece of cake.

Why did that make me feel even worse?

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Poor Tenten, and just so ya'll know, this will NOT be sasuten. Sasuke is my least favorite character ever. I could go into a huge rant about my dislike of him but I won't. And I'll ask you- why on earth would I put my favorite kunoichi with my least favorite character ever? I like Orochimaru more than I like Sasuke. I'll just reiterate that this will NOT be a sasuten fic. Now, I don't own Naruto. What's your favorite planet? And what are you thinking about this fic?


	4. Chapter 4

Yeah, sorry this took so long, but like I've said, I have to be dealing with very specific emotions when I write this and I'm not really a big fan of those emotions

I don't own Naruto, if I was connected with it then the kunoichi would be a lot less pathetic, possibly a little more emotional but in a more sensible way, and they'd definitely be taking down a lot more boss ninjas on their own

=/\=

I ducked into the alley and desperately tried not to pant, tried to stay perfectly still. I didn't even dare to blink.

This marked the _third time_ this week that I'd had nearly been cornered by Neji and it was getting annoying and confusing. I'd successfully avoided him for the past _four months_. Four freaking months and he hadn't noticed a thing. It had been tricky due to Gai-sensei's habit of Team Reunions but I'd had managed to wrangle various missions that just _happened _to coincide with the date of such reunions. Of course to help keep Gai and Lee from being suspicious I had to wake up at an unholy hour every day I was in Konoha in order to run with the two green beasts around the village and spar with Lee. At one point I'd even had to don my own horrible green jumpsuit. But that was more than worth it.

But now, all of a sudden, just for the hell of it, Neji was seeking me out.

Why? Why now? After I'd managed to avoid him for _four whole months?_

Why was he seeking me out when I was trying so hard to get over him the only way that made sense to me, by completely avoiding him until I could think of him the same way I thought of Lee, as a brother.

I refused to think of how for weeks I'd woken up with puffy eyes, red from when I may or may not have been crying in my sleep for the last few weeks, didn't think about how even a glimpse of him in a crowd still made my heart pound. I never thought about how when I worked with Hinata or any other Hyuuga he may or may not have come up in conversation. That was totally innocent. He was their family, my former teammate, he was a typical point of conversation even before I decided to get over him.

I wasn't avoiding him, anyone who told you otherwise would be lying and I would shove a kunai down their throat to prove it. _I was getting over him_. Of course I had to be getting over him. I was never around him anymore. I never spoke to him anymore, never meditated with him, never sparred with him.

_**I was getting over him.**_

If I kept repeating that to myself, if I kept concentrating on that fact and no other, then I could believe it. I had to believe it. It was the truth. I was getting over him. There was no doubt about it.

I risked a twitch of a movement to see if he was still looking in this area for me.

Damn it, he was.

Maybe I could double back and see if Shikamaru would let me borrow some gear? I had a two month mission to pack for, I didn't have time for this. I had to leave. Tsunade-sama wouldn't like it if I was late.

Why wouldn't he just go away?

=/\=

Poor Tenten


End file.
